The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-30
WINES AND VINE HOUSES
METHODS BY WHICH CHAMPAGNE
rs SOLD.

Hoffman House Gatherings Some OF
the Well-Known Men Who Meet at
the Hoffman Bar Room-A Few
Points About New York Politics and
Polite ans.
New YORK, Oct 29-On one of the
streets of New York running at right angles
with Broadway is a big but dingy store.
Great brass signs on either side of the door
indicate that it is wholesale wine house.
You enter tie offices, which have a dark
but not depressing appearance, and are met
by one of the retainers, who inquiries your
business You state that you wish to see
the head of the house, and after some delay
you are shown into the inner office of the
establishment. A man who looks the type
of an elderly French Count, but who is a
German, sits slipping champagne with a
rich customer, and when you enter he taps
a bell and orders the retainer, who responds
to the call, to bring another quart bottle of
wine. Two or three of the agents of the
firm drop in, and as they sip their
wine they aud the father of the house,
whose establishment and attaches represent
the typical rich wine place of the metropolis,
tell YOU about the wine business of America
You hear the somewhat astonishing aSser-
tion that the people of the United States
are drinking little if any more imported
wine than they did decade ago nothwith-
standing the increase of population and
wealth. You are told that this is because
the mass Of Americans appear TO be becom-
ing more economical and to be learning to
drink more beer and less wine.
New York. of course, consumes more
champagne than any other city in the
tafp h1rt a 10
amount of it, This is due to the fact that
it is great speculative centre. Spe ulators
are the most liberal imbibers of champagne
in the country, and places which cater to
them are constantly besieged by the keen
agents of wine houses
These agents are fashionably dressed ele
giant gentlemen, but their life is hard one
They must drink wine and spend money
literally, and each must have, besides a
pleasing address, an iron constitution. They
must know and be on good terms with the
bartenders and wine stewards at the fash
ionabie resorts of the city, for little care
leSsness in keeping wide a proper tenn
perature or i'll serving it may ruin its sale
to desirable customers They must know
everybody who is worth knowing and spend
their liberal allowances for incidental with
Judgment. One agent for then compare
lively obscure firm had its wine put on the
bills OF fare of nearly every hotel in New
York not long ago by reason of his extern
sive acquaintance and popularity, but the
firm objected to the extent of his expense
account and he left them. taking with him
much of his custom
A veteran agent of one of the wine houses,
who, like many of the profession, had his
training in Europe, tells of his experience
one day at a restaurant in a small German
town. he entered with five gentlemen of
prominence who were on rural excursion
with him and won the establishment and adj
miration of the loiterers about the place
when he gave the order: Bring me six bot
ties of champagne and six glasses" A
peasant who was considered a great man
by his townsmen had entered and heard the
order. Determined not to let his glory fade
before the lustre of the strangers, he turned
to the waiter and in loud and pompous
tone said: Bring me six bottles of cham
payne and one glass; His order and his as
tonishing feat of drinking nearly all the
champagne raised him nightly in the esti-
nation OF his admirers
The great champagne firm has its depart
ment of still wines conducted by experts in
that branch of the trade, who will tell
you the age and pedigree of a wine by tast-
ing it They will tell you that Americans
are making comparatively slow progress in
learning to drink expensive still wines, and
that champagne is not after all the most ex-
pensive of Yinous drinks. Clarets and
siderable quantities, and Giovanni Moro
SIM. Mr.. Gould's right hand man, who is
not a wine drinker himself, but keeps a we'll
stocked cellar, has some of that peculiarly
rich brand of Italian wine known as
Chianti, which is almost worth its weight
in gold. The average New York wine firm
occasionally sends young man
to France to perfect him in
the study of his business One of
these has just returned and he states that
the champagne and still wine product of
the present season is less i'll quantity but
probably better in quality than that of last
year The French wine growers are slowly
learning the value OF a certain application
about the vines as protection against mil
dew. and nearly every vineyard where this
was not used proved a failure this year.
The young agent made the astonishing dis
covery that the people in the champagne
district drink very little champagne. The
Frenchman and German usually prefers q
red wine, and TO meet the demand one firm
is now producing what it calls ruby cham
payne.
There are some royal wine drinkers in New
York. One OF these is a young man who
may be seen occasionally at the fashionable
cafe and who is pointed out by the epicures
as the person who inherited Sam Wards
stock of rare old liquors. Pat Gilmore, the
famous musical director, never drinks any
thing else but champagne, and he is consid-
cred one of the best judges of it in New
York. There is a modest little restaurant
on one of the crosstown streets of the city.
whose proprietor is counted by friends who
long for a taste of his private stock of Bur
gundy, and who envy him because he has
been able TO drink it all his life without get
ting the govt.
The association Of epicures known as the
1errapin Club are constantly on the lookout
for choice Madeira, which they use in cook
ing their feasts of diamond backs Recently
member found five bottles of it at an old
wine shop in cheap quarter of the city.
The place had changed hands, and the new
proprietor was asked what he would take
for the liquor. He was getting 81 so a bot
tie for his Madeira, and he gladly sold the
epicure the five bottles at that price When
he discovered that If was some choice old
wine, worth at least S. bottle, he tried in
vain to annul the bargain.
A. j. CUMMINGS.